BOOK: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pigrimage

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the latest novel by Haruki Murakami.  If you haven’t read any of his novels, you are missing a very talented writer.  This summer I read Kafka on the Shore.  When I saw the announcement of Murakami’s newest novel, I immediately ordered a copy.  Colorless is relatively short making for a good weekend read.  The story opens with Tsukuru, as a college sophomore, learning that his four closest friends from high school cut off all communication with him.  This act changes Tsukuru for life.  The novel has three time periods:  Tsukuru’s high school years in Nagoya; his college years in Tokyo; and as a 36 year old employed engineer.  Although much of the storyline takes place during Tsukuru’s adulthood, the story keeps returning to his time in school, and it is only towards the end of the novel that we learn why his friends, 2 males and 2 females, terminated their relationship with Tsukuru.  Unlike his friends, Tsukuru’s name does not translate to a particular color.  His friends’ surnames reflect a color:  Miss White; Miss Black; Mr. Red and Mr. Blue.  Tsukuru’s name means “to make”.  Tsukuru’s only other college friend’s name, Haida, means gray.  The colors are  metaphors for personalities.  As in Kafka on the Shore, this novel explores the difficulties of a young male coming of age in a society without the companionship or relationship of a father; Kafka and Tsukura, however, are very different males as were their fathers.  Tsukuru’s  efforts to learn what happened with his friends allows him to finally grow as an adult.  Interestingly,  the individual who pushes Tsukuru to make peace with his own history also has no color in her name.  Her dress and her life, however, are very color-coordinated.  The underlying story holds your interest and the quality of Murakami’s writing is world class.  For example:  “There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage of acute loss.”  I’ve read that Murakami has been considered for the Nobel Prize in literature.  Colorless, a relatively short work, will give you a feel as to why he is deserving of such consideration.  Then, after reading longer tales such as Kafka on the Shore, I believe that you, too, will be convinced that Murakami is deserving of such an honor.